News from the Library of Congress

September 10, 2008

"National Treasures, Local Treasures" Makes First Stop At Broward County Library

Program Brings Florida History Alive with Online Resources

"National Treasures, Local Treasures: The Library of Congress at Your Fingertips," an educational program that brings the riches of the Library to selected cities across the country, will make its debut at the Broward County Public Library on Friday, Sept. 19, at 10:30 a.m. The Main Library is at 100 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The event is sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Florida Center for the Book and the Broward County Library.

Florida resident Barbara Parker, a New York Times best-selling author and a former prosecutor with the state attorney’s office in Dade County, Fla., will be a special guest. She is the author of 12 mysteries, including "Suspicion of Malice," which was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American author, and "Perfect Fake," for which she did research in the map collections of the Library of Congress.

On the program from the Library of Congress are John Y. Cole, director of the Center for the Book; Elizabeth Ridgway, director of the Educational Outreach Division; Sherrie Galloway, educational outreach specialist; and Matt Raymond, director of communications. The program will begin with a clip from the film "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets," which prominently featured the Library of Congress in its storyline.

The program emphasizes demonstrations by Library of Congress educational specialists on how to bring Florida history alive with rare primary source materials on the Library’s Web site at www.loc.gov. More than 100 sixth-graders from the Plantation Middle School will participate in this event.

A demonstration of the interactive Library of Congress Experience (www.myLOC.gov) will bring unique historical and cultural treasures to attendees through cutting-edge interactive technology. The Experience comprises a series of new exhibitions and a continuing online educational experience on this personalized Web site. These include:

"The Art and Architecture of the Thomas Jefferson Building," a tour through this exuberant 1897 masterpiece of American craftsmanship.

"Creating the United States," which tells the story of how our Founding Fathers used creativity, collaboration and compromise to form our nation, with a focus on the words and phrases that created the republic.

"Thomas Jefferson’s Library," which features thousands of original volumes that provided the foundation for the Library of Congress and its universal collections.

"Exploring the Early Americas," which tells the story of the Americas before the time of Columbus, as well as the periods of contact, conquest and their aftermath. Floridian Jay I. Kislak’s extraordinary collection of rare books, manuscripts, historic documents, maps and art of the Americas comprises the major portion of this exhibition, which also features Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 Map of the World, the first document to use the word "America."

The Library of Congress will present Broward County with a facsimile of a Florida map from the Library of Congress’s collections.

Following the close of the program, Library of Congress educational specialists will hold a workshop with local schoolchildren and teachers aimed at introducing them to the primary sources on the Library’s Web site related to Florida and how to integrate these materials into their classrooms.

"National Treasures, Local Treasures" will also be presented by state centers for the book and public libraries in the following cities: